SAAS applications are becoming a more substantial part of many companies' IT infrastructure, according to a new research note by Gartner, but a number of companies are taking their "bad practices" from on-premises software into the cloud with them.

Top among those is "shelfware," or paying for unused software. Gartner also suggests that SaaS remains a relatively tiny percentage of total enterprise software deployments. Nonetheless, companies such as Microsoft are devoting more and more resources to the cloud, envisioning it as the way of the future.

Software-as-a-service applications will remain a focus of the enterprise for some time to come, according to a new research note from analysis firm Gartner. However, along with that adoption, a number of companies have started engaging in the same "bad practices" with the cloud that marked their use of on-premises software, particularly with regard to shelfware.